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Why do Macbook Pro's Drain Battery While "Sleeping"?

LarryJoe33

LarryJoe33

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jul 17, 2017
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Boston
I have poured over threads here, articles, forums, google, etc. and found that it is not uncommon for these machines to lose 1-2% per hour while sleeping. No one seems to have a fix. There are lots of things to try which I have - shutting off wifi, bluetooth, notifications, terminal commands to kill TCP processing, wake on bluetooth, hibernation timing, etc. (and @Fishrrman shutting it on and off is not a solution). I have nothing plugged into my machine (USB, ethernet, etc.). Brand new battery with 4 cycle on it that is performing well.

I know there are other threads on this here, but I thought I would start a fresh one to see if anyone has found a solution. It just sucks taking my machine out of my bag after a few days to find it dead.

I'll try anything, but I fear there is no solution.
 
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Either external influence or software Mac's should drop into sleep, then later on in the cycle hibernate. If the system is waking up it can be problematic to resolve, often requiring knowledge of Terminal commands, even then the cause can be elusive.

Q-6
 
OP:
I asked this in another thread, and I'll suggest it again.

If...
"It just sucks taking my machine out of my bag after a few days to find it dead..."

Then...
Why don't you just power it off BEFORE you put it into the bag, and reboot when you take it out?
What would you really be losing by doing this?
 
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My late 2013 15-MBP loses very little power in "just close the lid" mode. It can easily go weeks and still have plenty of power.

In SysPref Energy Saver, Battery tab, I have checked Put hard disks to sleep when possible and Dim display. These probably won't help you much. But I have unchecked Enable Power Nap, which keeps the computer from doing all manner of things while sleeping. For example, if unplugged and lid closed, no Time Machine backup, no email update, etc.
 
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I was having this issue and it was pretty maddening.

The thing that finally fixed it was going into Settings -> Energy Saver and unchecking "Wake for Network Access" and "Enable power Nap". I'm a relative power user and apparently don't depend on either of these features since I noticed no effect other than the battery no longer being flat by the next day. YMMV, of course.
[doublepost=1522165998][/doublepost]
Fishrrman said:
OP:
I asked this in another thread, and I'll suggest it again.

If...
"It just sucks taking my machine out of my bag after a few days to find it dead..."

Then...
Why don't you just power it off BEFORE you put it into the bag, and reboot when you take it out?
What would you really be losing by doing this?
Click to expand...

Because that's not how modern Macs are supposed to behave. You're only supposed to lose 10-15% of the battery charge at most no matter how long you sleep the machine because after a day or so the system is supposed to go into a deep sleep hibernate mode that uses almost no power.

Power Nap and Wake for Network Access were both causing this to not happen for me. I'm not sure why this was happening, but disabling those features fixed it.
 
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zorinlynx said:
I was having this issue and it was pretty maddening.

The thing that finally fixed it was going into Settings -> Energy Saver and unchecking "Wake for Network Access" and "Enable power Nap". I'm a relative power user and apparently don't depend on either of these features since I noticed no effect other than the battery no longer being flat by the next day. YMMV, of course.
[doublepost=1522165998][/doublepost]

Because that's not how modern Macs are supposed to behave. You're only supposed to lose 10-15% of the battery charge at most no matter how long you sleep the machine because after a day or so the system is supposed to go into a deep sleep hibernate mode that uses almost no power.

Power Nap and Wake for Network Access were both causing this to not happen for me. I'm not sure why this was happening, but disabling those features fixed it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for providing some insight on how you resolved your issue, it is maddening. My old machine does not support Powernap, so it's not even there. In terms of Wake on Network Access, I only have this setting under the Power tab (not the battery tab). Is this what you are referring to?
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robvas said:
Per hour? No way. If you are losing anywhere near 20% a day in sleep mode, something is very wrong
Click to expand...

Something is definitely wrong. I left my house this morning at 6:30 AM and unplugged my machine at 100% and put it in my bag. I plugged it into Ethernet at work, left the lid open and the display went to sleep. I just woke it up to check the energy settings and I am at 7%. Ethernet and lid open? 6 hours to 7%? Maybe.

There just has to be a way to tell what is sucking my battery dry with the lid closed.
 
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I'd look through the logs in Console.app

Sounds like something might be keeping your machine from sleeping at all.
 
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robvas said:
I'd look through the logs in Console.app

Sounds like something might be keeping your machine from sleeping at all.
Click to expand...
Thanks, what should I look for? I have a crap load of [ERROR] "Unknown CGXDisplayDevice" errors.
 
LarryJoe33 said:
My old machine does not support Powernap
Click to expand...
You're right - I failed to notice your sig - 2011 model - which doesn't support Power Napping. It doesn't "sleep" very well, either. When I had this model (and previous), it lost 10-15%/day when sleeping. This was addressed starting with the 2013 models. I believe this is expected behavior.
But it sounds like you have something more power hungry going on. Have you looked at the Energy tab in Activity Monitor. Even with the lid open it can show power-hungry processes, and this can suggest things which may keep running when sleeping.
 
Well, I did my first ever clean install and all indications so far are that it’s draining at acceptable levels. I lost 3% in 12 hours of sleep after the installing clean. My safari lag is gone too! I will begin to load up my programs again and configure it and will try to keep an eye out if it starts to drain and what the last thing I did was. Loading Office 2016 again and hoping this isn’t the culprit.
 
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Update: after my great results of a clean install, I proceeded (probably too quickly) to install and personalize my machine back to normal. I installed:

Beta Profile and updated to latest beta
Office 2016
Carbon Copy Cloner 5
1Password
Adobe Acrobat Reader

The rest was just personalizing settings like mail, fonts, safari, etc.

I lost 12% overnight, ugh. I am uninstalling Office 2016 to see if that's it.
 
Perhaps you've already answered this, but was there a time when the battery loss characteristics on this laptop were closer to what you're expecting?

My memory of my 2011 15-MBP was about 10% overnight, when all I did was close the lid.
 
kohlson said:
Perhaps you've already answered this, but was there a time when the battery loss characteristics on this laptop were closer to what you're expecting?

My memory of my 2011 15-MBP was about 10% overnight, when all I did was close the lid.
Click to expand...
Thanks, it's always been like this since I inherited it from my son a few years ago. First MacBook for me.
 
I officially give up. I did another clean install and just left the base system and expected the same results as the last time (before office and installations). No such luck. Something is sucking the battery with the lid closed and it does not appear I will ever solve it.
 
Larry Joe -

How about conducting an experiment for us.
It will take 6 days.

Here's how to proceed:
DAY 1:
In the evening, before bed, put the MBP on charge.
Get it up to 100%
Then, close the cover and let it sleep for the night
In the morning, open it and RECORD ON PAPER the percentage of battery discharge.

REPEAT this for days 2 and 3. Save the results each day.

DAY 4:
In the evening, again charge the MBP to 100%, BUT...
Shut it down tonight.
In the morning, boot up, and again RECORD ON PAPER the percentage of battery drain.

REPEAT this for days 5 and 6.

Then... come back here and post the results from all 6 days.
Will be VERY interested in seeing what you've obtained.
 
Fishrrman said:
Larry Joe -

How about conducting an experiment for us.
It will take 6 days.

Here's how to proceed:
DAY 1:
In the evening, before bed, put the MBP on charge.
Get it up to 100%
Then, close the cover and let it sleep for the night
In the morning, open it and RECORD ON PAPER the percentage of battery discharge.

REPEAT this for days 2 and 3. Save the results each day.

DAY 4:
In the evening, again charge the MBP to 100%, BUT...
Shut it down tonight.
In the morning, boot up, and again RECORD ON PAPER the percentage of battery drain.

REPEAT this for days 5 and 6.

Then... come back here and post the results from all 6 days.
Will be VERY interested in seeing what you've obtained.
Click to expand...

Thanks, questions, I believe you want me to charge and "unplug" for the 1-3 days after I close the lid. Obvious question but just making sure. On days 1-3 I would expect the same results as I have now. A loss of 12%+ overnight? I pretty much do this every night these days as part of my obsession with solving this. On days 4-6, shouldn't the results be 100% or close?

Not trying to be a smart ass here, but I know your recommendation many times has been to just power it down and up in lieu of closing the lid and letting it sleep which although it works, is not the way it is supposed to be. So I hope your experiment isn't just to prove a point?

OK, now all that said, after doing more research/google/scouring, I set hibernation to 0 and I think (fingers crossed) I got it!

2018-04-01 10:33:02 -0400 Sleep Entering Sleep state due to 'Clamshell Sleep': Using Batt (Charge:36%) 4352 secs

2018-04-01 11:45:34 -0400 Wake Wake from Normal Sleep [CDNVA] due to EC.LidOpen EHC2/Lid Open: Using BATT (Charge:36%)

hibernation 3 (default for MBP) = "safe sleep"
hibernation 0 = "normal sleep"


An hour and 12 minutes and no loss. Guess I didn't give up, more to follow.
 
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